Gus Chan, The Plain DealerDead bedbugs preserved in the entomology lab of professor Mark Willis at Case Western Reserve University.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The first waves of bedbugs have already burrowed deep into Greater Cleveland.

Now local schools, libraries, businesses and others are bracing for what's almost certain to come next -- a tsunami of the tiny human bloodsuckers.

Many Ohio entomologists and public health authorities insist that bedbugs -- flat, rust-colored creatures no bigger than an apple seed -- are about to turn parts of our lives upside down.

Forget about keeping carpet in some places. Bedbugs can live among the fibers, said Susan Jones, an urban entomologist at Ohio State University.

No more couches or comfy chairs in hospital waiting rooms, she said. Bedbugs love the upholstery.

And that coat rack in your house? Move it onto the front porch, Jones said, adding that she will never again let visitors pile coats on her bed.

"Bedbugs are going to be the pest of the century," Jones said. "It's an insect that leaves feces everywhere and it's just a nasty creature. If you're a living, breathing human being, you're a target. The only thing they care about is your blood."

Bad and getting worse, according to health officials, property managers, exterminators and others who face it daily.

"The wave of bedbugs has crashed on shore," said Rick Novickis, an environmental health supervisor for the Cuyahoga County Health Department.

The health department is fielding calls from an ever-increasing number of frantic bedbug-infested homeowners across the area, including Strongsville, Garfield Heights and Parma.

MetroHealth Medical Center -- where most doctors had never seen a bedbug bite until a couple of years ago -- is now treating at least one person a week for bites.

And some local landlords have reported that 50 percent of their units are infested by bedbugs. The Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority -- which is halfway through its first-ever bedbug inspections of 10,000-plus units -- have found bedbugs in about five percent of the apartments, paying about $750 to exterminate each.

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Yet no one really knows exactly how many homes, businesses, schools or other facilities have been infested.

"There's no mandatory reporting. It's insane," said Jones, the entomologist who sat on a state bedbug task force established last year by then-Gov. Ted Strickland. It is unclear whether the task force will continue under Gov. John Kasich.

Only hotels and motels are routinely inspected by the state. The fire marshal's office has incorporated bedbug inspection into its annual safety checks of lodging.

Inspectors also respond to complaints of bedbugs at hotels and motels. But critics have asked how many disgruntled Ohio travelers would think to call the fire marshall about bedbugs.

"The government is so far behind, I don't know how they'll catch up," said Chris Monachino, who oversees Terminix operations in much of Northeast Ohio.

Monachino declined to discuss specific customers, but said his bedbug exterminators have been in local movie theaters, high-rises, hotels, schools and homes.

"We're three years into high activity in this area and people are just now getting serious," he said.

Bedbug reports began trickling into the Cuyahoga County Health Department in 2008.

Since then, the number of reports has grown exponentially, following a pattern first experienced by Cincinnati and Columbus over the past seven years. Last month, nationwide exterminators Orkin and Terminix listed Cincinnati and Columbus among the top 10 worst bedbug-infested cities in the country.

"We see the writing on the wall. [The bedbugs] are driving up the highway on I-71," Novickis said. "We're in the early stages . . . if the pattern holds we'll be full-blown soon."

View full sizeGus Chan, The PDEntomologist Mark Willis at Case Western Reserve University, like most entomologists in the country, had never seen a bedbug until they started reappearing recently. A student whose apartment was infested brought these in for Willis to see.

Don't think you are exempt

It's a big mistake to think you or your home is safe from the onslaught, Novickis warns.

Everyone is vulnerable because these nocturnal creepy-crawlies lurk everywhere -- from the cushioned seats of movie theaters and the spines of borrowed books to student backpacks and the pant cuffs of plumbers who mayinadvertently drop the bedbugs and their eggs while traveling from house to house.

Worse, public health officials say there's no sure-fire, do-it-yourself method to rid yourself of the pests. You will need an exterminator.

If an infestation is caught early, it will probably cost several hundred dollars. But if the ferocious beasties spread, that cost can skyrocket to $4,000 or $5,000.

If you own your home, don't expect insurance to cover the cost, according the Insurance Information Institute. Even as bedbugs continue to spread, it's unlikely there will be special homeowner bedbug policies because it's impossible to predict the chances of becoming infested, said institute spokesman Michael Barry.

Some people call the health department thinking it can get rid of the bugs. But health officials have little enforcement power, Novickis said.

Their job, he said, is to educate people about how to prevent and how to get rid of bedbugs in hopes of softening the impact of the invasion.

Health officials, for example, now urge home health-care workers and others who go in and out of others' homes to shield their shoes with disposable covers and change the covers every time they leave someone's home.

Officials also suggest those workers carry a plastic chair with them so they don't sit on anyone's upholstery. And every time their shift is over, run whatever clothes they have been wearing through a hot dryer to kill whatever bedbugs they may have picked up.

The health department is also working with schools.

Instead of hanging children's coats together in a cloak room and piling backpacks and lunchbags on top of each other, Novickis said that each child should put his belongings in the same sealed plastic container every day.

Cleveland school officials are developing their own protocol to prevent the spread of bedbugs and hope to have it in place by April.

Wealthy Americans were first infected

"No matter where you live -- downtown Cleveland or Pepper Pike -- you have a chance of bringing bed bugs home," Novickis said.

Yet convincing people that anyone is vulnerable isn't easy. Many assume that bedbugs are only a problem for the poor or the unsanitary -- but it's not true.

In the early part of the last century, many impoverished neighborhoods were overwhelmed by bedbugs. But it wasn't because the bugs were drawn to those areas, entomologists say.

"If you don't pay attention and don't educate yourself, then shame on you," Novickis said. "You could innocently bring bedbugs home by keeping your head in the sand."

Jennifer Frimel -- a married, middle-class mother of two who lives in a newly built house in Mentor-- initially thought the welts on her stomach last year were a harmless rash.

When they spread to her arm, however, she headed to a doctor who told her he had never seen anything like it. Frimel, determined to solve the mystery, began researching online and was stunned to learn she was covered with bedbug bites.

Her first reaction -- which health officials say is far too common -- was to keep the bedbugs a secret. What would people think, she wondered.

Frimel quietly hired a dog specially trained to sniff out bedbugs and the pooch found the pests in the master bedroom closet -- where the family stores its luggage -- and under thebed. Based on that and the timing, Frimel believes her husband and son picked up the bedbugs during a trip to Detroit last summer to see a baseball game.

After more research -- and while living in a hotel to escape the infestation -- Frimel decided the best extermination method for their house was the most expensive: heat treatment.

Once Frimel's family cleared their house of items that could be damaged, an exterminator moved portable furnaces in and heated the home to 130 degrees, a temperature high enough to kill the bugs.

It wasn't cheap -- $3,600 for the extermination and another $1,400 for the hotel and replacement of household items. But Frimel said it was worth knowing the bugs were dead.

Now, instead of hiding her family's bedbug experience, Frimel's launched a mission to share it hoping that other's might be spared the headache and the cost.

"I didn't think it could happen to me," Frimel said. "But it can happen to anyone."

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